10 Magical Things You Can Do With Sous Vide

Don’t know about sous vide yet, but curious to learn more? Start here! I tell ya about everything you need to get viding.

So. If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with sous vide cooking. It’s this starting-to-get-trendy cooking method that lets you cook food to a super precise temperature and keep it there for as long as you want. You’ll never destroy a great steak again, friends.

But did you know it can do, like, a lot of other things? Sous vide isn’t just for beef!

1. Easy breezy creme brulee

When I say easy breezy, I mean add all your ingredients to a blender, let it rip, then pour the contents into jars. When they’re done, pour some sugar on top, caramelize with your own nifty (and super cheap) blow torch, and eat. No tempering eggs, no worrying if you’ve scrambled it, no thinking about it, period. I break it down in detail in my cookbook, Everyday Sous Vide: It’s All French to Me.

2. Warm overnight oats (that actually taste good)

So, overnight oats are definitely a thing. But have you actually made them? And eaten them? Cold oatmeal is kind of… disgusting. It’s just really unappealing. Wanna know what’s better? Overnight oats that are warm. And warm as soon as you wake up and are ready for them. Enter: sous vide! Add all your ingredients to a jar, give it a shake, then drop them in a water bath. Wake up to warm, palatable oatmeal. And you guessed it, there are four recipes for overnight oats in my cookbook, Everyday Sous Vide: It’s All French to Me.

3. Quickly infuse liquor

Liquor infusions are super easy to do at home. Pick a booze, add some fruit, spices, and whatever makes you happy, then let it sit. At least a week. Longer if you can stand it. But if you’re like me and don’t want to wait, you don’t have to! Thanks to sous vide, you can “cook” the liquor at super low temps without the alcohol evaporating (closed jar!) and you’ve got infused liquor in just a few hours. Perfect for the aunt you forgot to snag a gift for. And wouldn’t you know it, I have four liquor infusion recipes in my book, Everyday Sous Vide: It’s All French to Me.

5. Can!

Did you know you can can with sous vide? If you’ve ever made sous vide egg bites or desserts, you’ve noticed you have to pry the lid off the jar before you eat. That’s because they’re canned! It’s such a simple (and safe!) way to can your foods. Just like you would with traditional canning, make sure your lids are undamaged and you’ve sterilized your jars. Then, just follow recipe instructions! Those pickles above? Yeah, you’ll can ’em in the process of cooking them.

6. Soften cream cheese and butter all the way through in 10 minutes

Are you looking to make the cheesecake in Everyday Sous Vide: It’s All French to Me, but forgot to soften the cream cheese? Making cookies, but forgot to soften the butter? Have no fear! Add your blocks to a large ziploc bag, set your immersion circulator to 70 degrees F, and add the bag to the water bath. You’ll have room temp dairy in about 10 minutes! This is extra handy when you need to soften mega quantities.

7. Make way more affordable (and better tasting) sous vide egg bites

Have you fallen into the Starbucks trap and gone head over heels for their sous vide egg bites? Guess what – you can make them way better at home, with whatever flavors you want. I make a batch of 6 every Sunday and eat them for breakfast all week long. They cook in half pint mason jars, so you can simply remove the lid and pop ’em in the microwave to reheat. Perfect for my fellow office workers who like to put off breakfast! And you betcha, I have all the recipe info in Everyday Sous Vide: It’s All French to Me.

8. Make the world’s best mashed potatoes

Yep, mashed potatoes done sous vide. Why, oh why, you ask? Because the potatoes can cook in butter and cream instead of water, and you get to keep all that glorious starch. Cube your potatoes, add them to a bag with cream, butter, salt, and herbs, let ’em cook, then transfer to a bowl and mash. You’ll never eat potatoes any other way.

9. Use it for home brewing

This isn’t something I’ve done before, but home brewers who’ve discovered sous vide have said it changed their game. Check out my friend Cole Wagoner’s guide to the process – he’s a master recipe developer and social media guru over at Anova!

10. Chill wine and keep it chilled

Not only can immersion circulators keep things hot, they can keep things cold. Admittedly, they aren’t as good at the cold, so you need to start with some ice, but they’ll do a much better job than an ice bucket alone. A handy trick for parties when you’ve got lots of bottles that need chillin’!

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Hi! I'm Chelsea.

I'm the author of Everday Sous Vide: It's All French to Me, a digital marketer by day, and food blogger and freelance content creator by night. I'm a University of Oregon grad currently in Portland, OR, my hometown. I first started this blog as a college student hoping to encourage other students to branch outside of pizza and boxed mac and cheese. While some things have changed since I finished school, I still rely on simple recipes to produce fun, comforting food!